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mardar_gw

parents of pixie tomato

MarDar
20 years ago

My favorite tomato the pixie hybrid is no longer availible. Does anyone know what it was hybrid from. What was crossed to produce it.

Thanks in advance

Comments (7)

  • agrinerd
    20 years ago

    You might want to post this in the Tomatoes forum. Dr. Carolyn Male frequents the area and she may actually know. Unfortunately, most hybrids are highly proprietary and the parent stock is closly guarded by its producers to the extent of even destroying "obsolete" lines. Some discontinued hybrids are impossible to reproduce because the original parent stock has been replaced by newer "improved" lines.

  • MarDar
    Original Author
    20 years ago

    Thank you. I found a few old Pixie II seeds. I'm going to plant them and see if I can dehybridize them over several generations.
    Tamar

  • GrapeNut
    20 years ago

    I would suggest multiple backbreeding to a perpetual clone of the pixie. you would have to overwinter it every fall and winter so that you could grow out the previous summers seeds and select the best plants from them to pollinate the original pixie. collect those seeds and breed them back to the original clone and so on. After several years you should have a line of mater seeds that perform to your satisfaction!

  • kevins_choice
    20 years ago

    is there a tomato variety that is amune to bronze wilt virus.

  • autotetraploid
    20 years ago

    Are you talking about the hybrid released by Burpee Seeds?
    If so I was in on that and that was a cross of two lines that came straight from USDA seed repository. They were characterized as "dwarf tree type" by the USDA in a collection which now goes by the name of GRIN. We just crossed everything we could get a hold of and one of the crosses was a bit better than the others. Of course, we liked to use hybrids because no one could reliably grow the next generation to look like the first and we had a lock on the parents.

    Though no one asked. If you ever saw the Burpee catalogue or sale racks in the 70's, there was a small 3 year old girl holding the tomatoes standing next to a tomato plant. She showed up on many banners and catalogues for about 5 years. That was my girl.

  • MarDar
    Original Author
    20 years ago

    Thanks for your response to my question. Your job must have been fascinating. I wasn't gardening in the 70's so I don't remember your daughter's picture. I would love to, why don't you post a scan.

  • GrapeNut
    20 years ago

    Dear Autotetraploid,

    Could you possibly tell what two parent lines one would order from the Grin system to replicate this hybrid?

    Thank you in advance!

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